Historical Witchcraft and Trials — Side Notes
Historical witchcraft is where fear left a paper trail. Court transcripts, confessions wrung from exhaustion, sermons sharpened into weapons—this is the era where belief became bureaucracy and superstition learned how to sign its name. The trials weren’t accidents or moral panics alone; they were systems at work, fed by power, theology, gender politics, and social fracture.
The Side Notes in this section approach these records with care and clarity rather than spectacle. They explore famous trials and lesser-known persecutions, not to sensationalize suffering, but to understand how ordinary communities turned neighbors into threats and suspicion into law. These pieces favor context over gore and pattern over shock value.
This is history that still breathes. Not because the accusations were true—but because the mechanisms behind them never fully disappeared.
Featured Side Notes
You can also find these articles—and many more—within the main Grimoire Blog.
Aradia and the Witch’s Gospel: The Text That Reawakened Magical Identity — Discover Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, a poetic and revolutionary text that inspires modern witches with ritual guidance, magical empowerment, and ancestral lineage. Explore how Aradia continues to shape Wiccan identity, practice, and creative spiritual expression.
From Pagan Roots to Modern Witchcraft: Discover the Evolution of Magic — Explore the fascinating evolution of magic, from ancient pagan roots to modern witchcraft. Uncover the origins, transformations, and pop culture magic!
When Magic Was Medicine: Witchcraft in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome — Long before witches were feared, they were revered healers. Journey through ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, where magic intertwined with medicine, rituals soothed the body and soul, and practitioners guarded secrets that blurred the line between science and sorcery.
Witch Hunts to Witch Power: The Renaissance of Feminine Magic Today — From the flames of persecution to modern empowerment, feminine magic has endured. Explore the journey from witch hunts to exonerations, memorials, and today’s witchcraft renaissance rooted in healing, feminism, and reclaiming power once feared and suppressed.
The witch trials were never really about magic. They were about control—over bodies, belief, labor, and deviation. Studying them isn’t an exercise in morbidity; it’s a way of tracing how fear becomes policy and how stories turn lethal once they’re endorsed by authority.
The Side Notes exist to keep these histories legible and grounded. Some entries will unsettle. Others may clarify long-held assumptions about who was targeted and why. None are meant to romanticize suffering or turn tragedy into aesthetic.
Remembering these records isn’t about reliving them—it’s about recognizing the conditions that made them possible, and noticing when those conditions start to gather again under new names.
* * *
✦ Comment below—we love hearing how others walk these paths
✦ Follow us on Instagram for new articles and archive updates
✦ Support the work on Ko-fi to keep the lamps lit
✦ Visit Patreon for exclusive content and deeper dives
